What's the cheapest way to heat a room in New Zealand? (priced per hour)
A 2kW panel heater costs about 74c an hour to run. The same warmth from a heat pump costs roughly 19c. Every common Kiwi heater priced per hour of warmth — including the LPG cabinet heater you should retire.
It’s mid-winter, power prices are up again, and the heater debate is running in every Kiwi flat and family home. So here it is settled with numbers: what an hour of warmth costs, appliance by appliance, at a typical 37c/kWh electricity rate.
The per-hour scoreboard
For a decent living room’s worth of warmth (~2 kW):
| Heater | What an hour costs | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Heat pump | ~19c | Moves heat from outside air instead of making it — roughly 4 units of warmth per unit of electricity in NZ’s mild climate |
| Panel, bar, fan or oil-column heater | ~74c | Converts electricity 1-for-1 — every watt in, one watt of warmth |
| Portable LPG cabinet heater | About the same as a panel heater — often more, depending on bottle prices | Bottled gas is dear heat — and it’s unflued, so the combustion moisture goes straight into your walls and windows |
Three things worth absorbing from that table:
If you own a heat pump and you’re still running the panel heater in the same room, switch tonight — it’s a 4-to-1 difference and costs nothing. The oil-column heater deserves special mention: it feels thrifty because it’s slow and silent, but it costs exactly the same to run as a bar heater. Slow heat isn’t cheap heat.
The LPG cabinet heater is the one to actually retire. It’s expensive per unit of warmth and it pumps water vapour into the room — in the country with a national damp problem, that’s paying extra to make the mould worse. If it’s your main heater, a heat pump is the upgrade with the strongest case in the house.
Cooler South Island air trims heat-pump efficiency a little — the 4-to-1 becomes maybe 3-to-1 on a frosty Dunedin night. Still miles ahead of everything else.
”Should I buy a heat pump then?”
If you’re heating your main room most nights with resistive heaters — yes, the maths is emphatic, and heat pumps are now the only heater Warmer Kiwi Homes funds. If your home is pre-2008 and owner-occupied, check the expanded eligibility before paying full price — the grant reaches middle-income areas now and covers up to $3,450 of the cost.
Three things to check before you sign, wherever you buy:
- The Energy Rating Label stars for your zone — the AU/NZ zoned label rates heating performance separately for cold, mixed and hot climates. South Island or inland? Compare the cold-zone stars, not the headline.
- Seasonal efficiency (COP) — the “units of warmth per unit of electricity” number. Higher is literally more warmth per dollar; it matters more than brand.
- Warranty: 5+ years on the compressor, parts and labour — labour is the expensive half if anything fails, and parts-only warranties quietly exclude it.
One very Kiwi caveat: cheap ≠ warm enough
A low heating bill in New Zealand often just means a cold house — a fifth of households went to bed early last winter to avoid heating. The point of the table isn’t to heat less; it’s to get more warmth for the same money. A heat pump at 19c an hour buys nearly four hours of warmth for what one hour cost on the bar heater — take some of that as savings and some as a house that’s actually 20°C.
Two free helpers, whatever you run: heat to 18–20°C (each degree above adds roughly 10% to running costs), and close the doors — half the volume heats in half the time.
Check the whole picture
Heating is the biggest winter lever, but here’s what a normal NZ power bill looks like for your household size and region — and our free comparison will tell you whether heating is even your problem, or whether it’s the hot water cylinder quietly drinking 30% of your bill. For every fix priced with honest paybacks — including the ones we say to skip — that’s the NZ guide.
Rates: typical NZ standard rate of ~37c/kWh from the sourced assumptions in the Decode Energy Home Energy Saving Guide (NZ 2026 edition); heat-pump performance uses the guide’s seasonal efficiency figure for temperate climates — NZ’s mild maritime climate is comparable, with lower performance in the cooler south as noted. Your retailer’s rates and your heater’s condition shift the cents, not the order of the table.
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